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Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Today I welcome David Khara, author of The Bleiberg Project, an amazing conspiracy thriller based on World War II and its consequences in today’s world. This fast-pace novel is the first in the Consortium Thriller series. The book was an instant success in France, catapulting the author to the ranks of France’s top thriller writers. Today marks the launch in English by Le French Book, a digital-first publisher specializing in best-selling mysteries and thrillers from France.

David Khara:Bringing a Hero to Life

How do you bring a hero to life? I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been asked that question. And when I answer, most people seem surprised. Imagine for a second a six-foot-six bald giant, survivor of the death camps becomes a war criminal killer. Now, think about that character being inspired by a woman.

Eytan, the real hero of the Consortium thriller series came to me after reading and watching testimonials of Simone Lagrange, who survived the death camps. For a long time, I chose not to talk about it. I did so out of respect, because I wrote an entertaining series, and I didn’t want to make any profit on people’s misery and pain. But, behind the entertainment, The Bleiberg Project, and the whole series, pays tribute to the victims of World War II, be they members of the resistance, or of course, victims of the Shoah. During my research, I found amazing, incredible stories, lived by ordinary, mostly anonymous heroes. Believe me, after spending three years digging into madness and cruelty, you really need those heroes if you want to keep believing in mankind.

If there is one thing The Bleiberg Project’s success makes me proud of, it is that I now have the opportunity to really talk about these real-life heroes. And Simone Lagrange is one of them.

To survive and to resist

She was 13 when the Gestapo arrested her. She was questioned and tortured by the war criminal Klaus Barbie. Then she was sent to Auschwitz’s hell. But she survived, and she came back. I won’t tell you the whole story, she wrote a magnificent book (Coupable d’être née, or Guilty of Being Born). If it hasn’t been translated, it is worth learning French to read it!

In 1972, a French journalist named Ladislas de Hoyos interviewed a man in Argentina who was thought to be Klaus Barbie. The man denied being the war criminal. But Simone Lagrange saw the interview, and she recognized him. In 1987, she testified during Barbie’s trial in Lyon, revealing, certainly for the first time, that her father had been shot in front of her. Eventually, Barbie was sentenced to life imprisonment and died in jail four years later.
To find out more about this trial, I strongly recommend you read this NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/02/magazine/voices-from-the-barbie-trial.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

Hope and laughter

Once again, I told you the short story. But the journey it tells is of the utmost importance. Simone Lagrange had survived and she lived to see her torturer brought to justice. And now, she testifies in front of children and cameras. In a world that lacks memory, she brings memory. But she doesn’t speak of vengeance; she doesn’t scream her hatred. With amazing energy, Simone tells us of hope and laughter, even in the most unexpected and most cruel moments. She tells us of survival and of the value of life itself.

Simone Lagrange also said, “I didn’t become what they would have wanted me to be.” That’s what resistance to barbarism is about. That’s the sentence from which Eytan was born. I hope at some points in the series, the man he is pays a little tribute to this extraordinary woman and to those who, like her, fought for their right to live. At least, because of the book, some of you will now know about Simone Lagrange. And as a writer and a man, this is more than reward enough.

The British Crime Writers' Association announced the Longlist for the 2013 Dagger in the Library Award. This Dagger is given “not for an individual book but for the author’s body of work.” A shortlist of finalists will be selected and announced on May 31 during CrimeFest in Bristol, England. The winner will be announced at the CWA Daggers Gala Dinner July 15.

Please leave your email address in comments below for directions and to RSVP.

Summer of the Big Bachi(Bantam/Delta, March
30, 2004) was Naomi's first mystery. The book, a finalist for Barbara
Kingsolver's Bellwether Prize, was also nominated for a Macavity mystery
award. This was followed by Gasa-Gasa Girl. Snakeskin Shamisen, the third in the series, was released in May 2006 and won an Edgar Allan Poe award in the category of
Best Paperback Original. The fourth Mas Arai mystery, Blood Hina, was published in
hardcover March 2010 by St. Martin's/Thomas Dunne Books. Trade paperback
and new ebook version will be released later in 2013 by Prospect Park
Books, the publisher of the fifth installment,Strawberry Yellow has just been published. Hirahara has short stories published in a number of anthologies, including Los
Angeles Noir (Akashic, May 2007), A Hell of a Woman: An Anthology of Female
Noir (Busted Flush Press, December 2007), and The Darker Mask (TOR, January
2008). Naomi's new mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime,
featuring a 22-year-old LAPD bicycle cop, will be released in 2014.

In the summer of 2008 her first middle-grade book, 1001 Cranes,
was released by Random House's Delacorte imprint in hardback and came
out as a Yearling trade paperback in June 2009.
It was recognized with an Honorable Mention award in
Youth Literature by the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association.

She edited Green Makers: Japanese American Gardeners in Southern California (2000), published by the Southern California Gardeners' Federation and
partially funded by the California Civil Liberties Public Education
Program. She also authored two biographies for the Japanese American
National Museum, An American Son: The Story of George Aratani, Founder of Mikasa and Kenwood (2000) and A Taste for Strawberries: The Independent Journey of Nisei Farmer Manabi Hirasaki(2003). She also compiled a reference book, Distinguished Asian American Business Leaders (2003), for Greenwood Press and with Dr. Gwenn M. Jensen co-authored the book, Silent Scars of Healing Hands: Oral Histories of Japanese American Doctors in World War II Detention Camps
(2004) for the Japanese American Medical Association. Under her own
small press, Midori Books, she has created a book for the Southern
California Flower Growers, Inc., A Scent of Flowers: The History of the Southern California Flower Market(2004). Other upcoming Midori Books projects include Fighting Spirit: Judo in Southern California, 1930-1941 (co-authored by Ansho Mas Uchima and Larry Akira Kobayashi, 2006).

***
Naomi Hirahara was born in Pasadena, California. Her father, Isamu
(known as "Sam"), was also born in California, but was taken to
Hiroshima, Japan, as an infant. He was only miles away from the
epicenter of the atomic-bombing in 1945, yet survived. Naomi's mother,
Mayumi, or "May," was born in Hiroshima and lost her father in the
blast. Shortly after the end of World War II, Sam returned to California
and eventually established himself in the gardening and landscaping
trade in the Los Angeles area. After Sam married May in Hiroshima in
1960, the couple made their new home in Altadena and then South
Pasadena, where Naomi and her younger brother Jimmy grew up and attended
secondary school.

Naomi received her bachelor's degree in international relations from
Stanford University and studied at the Inter-University Center for
Advanced Japanese Language Studies in Tokyo. She also spent three months
as a volunteer work camper in Ghana, West Africa.

She was a reporter and editor of The Rafu Shimpo
during the culmination of the redress and reparations movement for
Japanese Americans who were forcibly removed from their homes during
World War II. During her tenure as editor, the newspaper published a
highly-acclaimed inter-ethnic relations series after the L.A. riots.

Naomi left the newspaper in 1996 to serve as a Milton
Center Fellow in creative writing at Newman University in Wichita,
Kansas.

After returning to Southern California in 1997, she began to edit, publish, and write books.

The 5-2 presents an original, crime-themed poem each Monday in text and audio/video. Every day this month, contributors and fans are discussing 5-2 poetry on their blogs and websites. I've published crime poetry for five years -- four as co-editor of The Lineup chapbook series -- and I'm still asked, "What is crime poetry? What purpose does it serve?"

I find poetry lets us react to crime honestly, powerfully, and differently from crime fiction. Even the most innovative fiction follows narrative convention. Poetry, not bound by narrative, can more immediately convey emotion, such as our shock at the Boston Marathon bombing.

In almost two years at The 5-2, I've published all kinds of poems. All have surprised me to some degree as the "crime" guideline is open to poets' interpretation. With a few days left of April, I invite you to sample crime poetry for yourself. Thanks to Janet for inviting me.

**** Gerald said I should post about my favorite poem, but reallty they're all so great, how could I choose? Which do you like best? Or which touches you the most? and in what way? Be sure and check back to The 5-2 for the rest of the month's posts! :-)

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Today marks the launch of DARK SECRETS by Hans Rosenfeldt and Michael Hjorth (Grand Central Publishing's first crime in translation novel) here in the U.S., but Dark Secrets spent more than eight months on Sweden’s bestseller list and sold over 200,000 copies when it was published in 2010.

Touted as “the best Swedish crime export of the year” by Die Welt (Germany), DARK SECRETS introduces psychological profiler Sebastian Bergman, an arrogant and narcissistic womanizer recovering from a traumatic personal loss. In Sebastian the authors have created a character who is both fascinating and deeply flawed.

I'm a sucker for Swedish crime fiction, and when I saw that two people wrote this book together, I knew I had to ask for a guest post for the Partners in Crime series here on Mystery Fanfare. The authors obliged, and to make it easier on them, I volunteered a Swedish translator: Sue Trowbridge. Sue was born in Sweden, raised in the U.S. A former journalist, she is a web designer and Fan Guest of Honor at Left Coast Crime 2014. Thanks, Sue! Great job! Sue suggested I attach the original Swedish article.. scroll down to the end of the post, if you want to read this in Swedish.

MICHAEL HJORTH was born in 1963 in Visby. He has always loved movies and books and is one of Scandinavia's most accomplished screenwriters and producers today. He is one of the founders of the production company Tre Vänner which, among other things, is behind Sweden's first highly successful sitcom, Svensson Svensson, as well as the movie Snabba cash / Easy Money.Michael Hjorth likes to work in all genres and has written everything from comedy to horror, drama and crime.HANS ROSENFELDT was born in 1964 in Borås. He worked as a sea lion keeper, a driver, a teacher and an actor until 1992 when he began writing for television. He has written screenplays for approximately twenty drama series and has hosted both radio and television shows. He loves to write, play videogames and spend time with his wife and three children.

GIVEAWAY: Make a comment below to win a copy of Dark Secrets. (U.S./Canada only). Be sure and leave your email address.

MICHAEL HJORTH & HANS ROSENFELDT:

Nothing inspires creativity like a deadline!

Seriously. If we hadn’t had clients who were waiting at the other end of our email, we would probably never have been able to sit down long enough to get anything out..

Not that we don’t love to write; it isn’t that.

But sometimes it's hard. To sit there. In front of the blank screen and make things up. Without a deadline, every word can be a battle. With a deadline, each word is a necessity. That is the difference. We know; it's not very romantic.

We sometimes read about writers who testify to the necessity of writing, how they disappear into a vacuum and neither eat nor sleep, totally obsessed with creating. Authors who are not whole people if they do not get to tell their story. Authors who suffer through every word, every sentence, every page.

That is not us.

We do not like suffering.

We like pleasure.

We have lived on the proceeds of our writing for most of our adult lives. One may be led to believe that it was part of a plan. A carefully mapped-out career. But the truth is that it was pure chance that brought us here.

Micke’s dream was to become a director.

Hans’s dream was to become an actor.

Neither of us got very far with either of those dreams.

So we started writing for television. We love TV. It gave us a good education. The best education. We were both lucky enough to be part of the heyday of Swedish drama. Much was produced. It was creative. It was pleasurable. And we both realized, in our own ways, that we love to tell stories.

We are good at telling stories.

Our goal has always been to entertain. Sometimes, a bit more. Never less.

But it was not a plan. Nor was it an inner compulsion. It was luck. Chance. And a certain amount of talent…

Now we have had the privilege to do other things as well.

Mike was able to direct.

Hans got to be in front of the cameras.

But there is one thing we always return to. Writing.

One day, we got the idea to try something new. See if what we learned in the TV industry could be put to use elsewhere. See if we could turn our dramatic imaginations, scenes, characters and stories into a book.

Into a suspense novel. A mystery.

Now we have done just that. It has been some of the most fun we have had in many years.

Fun, but difficult. The differences between TV and a book are more than we could ever have imagined. The possibilities are endless. Characters are so much more important. And time. The time you have to tell your story. You can go into greater depth. You can afford to digress. The inner voice can come closer.

What a luxury.

When we put the first Post-It note up on the wall in Micke's office and started groping our way forward in the story, we worked as if we were doing a TV movie. A long TV movie... We forced ourselves to talk about chapters instead of scenes, but on the whole, the process was the same.

What will happen in the plot? What will happen to our characters? And when?

After a few weeks, what would eventually become Dark Secrets was up on the wall, and we each grabbed a handful of Post-It notes, sat down in front of blank pages on our computer screens, and started writing. Each of us. In different directions. We never write together in the sense that we are sitting next to each other in the same room. We write, send drafts to each other, make changes and comment on each other's work, and send it back. Back and forth. We call each other when we come up with a new idea. When we want to change something. Diverge from the path which is marked by the colorful Post-It notes. But we almost never get together in person during the actual writing process. When we have converted the Post-It notes into manuscript pages, we go back to the wall and pluck a few more. We write, we e-mail back and forth, we call each other, we make changes, change it back, write something new... So it goes. Until we are ready. Or, we are not quite ready, but there is a body of work. 300 pages or more. That is when we meet. We sit side by side, two people, one screen. We go through the manuscript together. We are two authors, and although we have the same points of reference, we’ve discussed the plot and characters, kept in touch during the writing process, it is apparent that the book was written by two different people. That will not do. So then Hans reads through the manuscript one last time - along with our editor and publisher - and makes sure that the language, pace and shape are the same.

Why is it Hans and not Micke, one may wonder. The answer is simple. Hans is an infinitely bigger control freak than Micke.

It's one of the reasons we work so well together. We are different. We have different strengths, different weaknesses. We are devoted to different characters in our books, have an easier time understanding them, writing them. Micke knows exactly who Ursula is, Hans doesn’t quite understand her... Hans loves Thomas Haraldsson, a secondary character who was never meant to be in more than the early part of the book, but who dug in his heels and grew until he even turned up in book number two.

We write differently, have different temperaments. Micke wants the text to flow, to write a lot, write at length, keep going, build up volume. Hans stays up late to read, repeat, read again, rewrite. He begins his day by reading what he wrote the day before, and he goes through it again ...

But the biggest benefit of being a pair is that when the day comes when it feels sluggish, not to say impossible, to go any further, then we can call each other, push on and, in the best case, send over a few pages so that it feels again like we’re getting somewhere. Being a pair is, in our case, a prerequisite for getting the job done.

Reservoir Noir
Books that deal with intentional flooding of towns and villages
because of building dams and reservoirs for water supply, irrigation,
power and other reasons--a sad addition to the environmental crime fiction list.

Concealed Weapons Fashion Show from Left Coast Crime, Colorado. This is a full 11 minutes and fun but shaky camera.. don't miss the finale of this Runway Show with Twist Phelan and her new husband in wedding attire. Twist is wearing Vera Wang.. and 'carrying':

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Sad news. I just saw that one of my favorite children's authors passed away today. E.L. Konigsburg was the author and illustrator of From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. She was 83. From the Mixed-Up Files features a 12 year old girl and her younger brother who runaway and move into New York's Metropolitan Museum. I've read that book so many times. The Metropolitan is one of my favorite museums, and every time I visit I find new rooms, paintings and sculpture. Quite the magical place! Who wouldn't want to run away there?

Konigsburg won the Newberry Medal in 1968 for From the Mixed Up Files. She won another Newberry Medal for The View from Saturday (29 years later). She was the author of many more children's and adult books, as well as the illustrator.

Nobody wants to read a political tract disguised as a novel, especially a crime novel.

But one of the major reasons I was attracted to the crime genre in the first place is its long history of social commentary, going back to Hammett in the 1920s. (One of my favorite quotes from Red Harvest: “The room was as dark as an honest politician’s prospects.”)

So when I started writing 23 Shades of Black, the first novel in my Edgar-nominated series featuring Ecuadorian-American detective, Filomena Buscarsela, the toxic legacy of the Reagan Administration and his Secretary of the Interior, James "We will mine more, drill more, cut more timber" Watt, was still fresh in my mind.

Environmental crime features prominently in the series because, obviously, I’m genuinely concerned about rampant environmental destruction. But what makes this type of crime particularly fertile ground for noirish mystery novels is the hardboiled nature of the offense: unlike so many formula-driven mysteries in which an individual kills someone to protect a dirty family secret or some such motive, environmental pollution is usually committed by faceless corporations (or a major branch of government, like the Navy) in ways that make it nearly impossible to isolate a single, guilty perpetrator in time for a nice neat dénouement.

That’s because it’s hard to draw a definite causal link between, say, the toxic PCBs that were dumped in the Hudson River in the 1950s and the cancer clusters that emerged in the surrounding population twenty years later, because it’s easy for the potentially responsible party to claim that other factors could have caused those cancers.

In some ways, that’s my definition of hardboiled: in many traditional mysteries, the guilty party is an individual who no longer pose a threat to society once their guilt is revealed, and we can all rest assured that we are now safe from their depravities (this is why they’re called “cozies,” after all). Whereas in the hardboiled world, guilt and corruption are rampant, and it’s impossible to clean up the whole mess. In such a world, people (and corporations) can and do get away with murder.

And so my mole at the US EPA has been especially useful in providing material for my novels. (That’s right, I’ve got a mole at the EPA. Bwah-ha-ha!) We met in biology class way back in ninth grade and, as members of the Bio-Ecology Club, went on a month-long field trip in July 1975 that stretched from Cadillac Mountain, Maine to Key West, Florida. (Looking back, my heart goes out to the hapless teacher-chaperones who agreed to haul a couple of minivans full of 14-year-olds on a thousand-mile field trip. We sure owe them a debt, I’ll say that much.)

In 23 Shades of Black, my detective acts pretty much on her own against the corporate criminals, with decidedly mixed results. In Soft Money, second in the series, she starts working for a non-profit environmental organization, which allowed me to introduce Gina Lucchese, regional investigator for the EPA, who helps Filomena get to the bottom of some very dirty crimes.

I got access to mounds of EPA documents, which are available, in theory, through the Freedom of Information Act. But it might take a regular citizen months or even years to see them. I got them right away. Of course I had to change the names of the entities involved, but the chemical names and environmental statistics are all taken right from the public record. No need to invent any nasty threats when reality itself is already so frightening.

In The Glass Factory, third in the series, I took on the classic motif of setting the story in a seemingly idyllic American town that turns out to be rotten to the core, both symbolically--with the usual rampant corruption--and literally, when my detective visits her latino cousins, who live in a poor neighborhood across the street from the foul-smelling factory of the title.

In Red House, fourth in the series, I took a case straight from the EPA’s files about an abandoned industrial space that was remodeled for residential purposes, leading to disastrous results due to... well, you get the idea.

Blood Lake, fifth in the series, takes place in Ecuador, and even though there’s no EPA presence in the novel, there’s plenty of environmental damage. I lived in Ecuador for three years and witnessed the devastation first hand--from an earthquake that damaged the country’s sole oil pipeline, spilling untold quantities of crude into the jungle, to floods, hyperinflation and attendant food shortages.

In fact, people who read Red House, which takes place in Queens, often say that the craziness in that novel must be real because it’s so New York, when I actually made most of it up; and people who read Blood Lake say that I must have made all that up because the craziness is so over-the-top, when in fact most of it is true. The damage to the environment and the indigenous communities caused by oil drilling in the Amazon jungle has been carried out in a way that would never be permitted in the continental US.

But it’s not all gloom and doom, of course. My series has been recognized for its humor as well, even if it’s usually cynical, smartass New York-style humor (no surprise there, I suppose). Because once again, no one wants to read a political tract disguised as a novel. But it is our job as authors to write about what makes us laugh and cry, about what thrills us, and above all what makes us angry: What fresh outrages has man created to feed his bottomless greed? This is the stuff of great novels, not just great crime novels. And so we must bear in mind what George Orwell, surely one of the great political novelists of the 20th century, said in his 1947 essay, “Why I Write”:

Looking back through my work, I see that it is invariably where I lacked a political purpose that I wrote lifeless books and was betrayed into purple passages, sentences without meaning, decorative adjectives and humbug generally.” [emphasis in original]

Tell it, George.

Now, did you ever hear the one about the...?

Kenneth Wishnia has been nominated for the Edgar, the Anthony, and the Macavity Awards. He is thrilled that PM Press is reprinting the complete Filomena Buscarsela series, in revised and expanded editions, ending with Blood Lake in 2014.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Love this Vintage Children's Book. I'm not sure I wanted to be a Librarian, but I am sure I wanted to go to the Library as much as possible. In order to get a library card, my library insisted that the patron be able to write his/her name. Since I read before I could write, I asked my big sister to teach me to write my name. I practiced until I got it right, and I was able to get my library card when I was four. I was already reading, but mostly the books my sister chose or books she owned. How exciting to have my own card that opened the world of books to me. My plan was to start at "A" and work my way through the alphabet. I was too young to know that was futile, but for some reason I'm still trying.....

I've posted piecemeal some of the winners of the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Awards, but here you have their Mystery, Suspense and Thriller awards in one place. Hat Tip to Criminal Element. As you can see, Romantic Times reviews much more than romance. Winner in Bold.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

As you may know this is National Library Week (April 14-20). And, today is National Bookmobile Day! What a great source of library outreach. I've posted several photos of Bookmobiles before, but thought in honor of the day, I'd post a few more!

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

From Japan Times. How cool is this? Definitely part of the environmental movement. B & B: Books and Bees!

Major construction firm Kajima Corp. has started beekeeping in Tokyo
jointly with bookstore chain Yaesu Book Center in a project to help
raise awareness of environmental protection.Some 20,000 western honeybees are being kept on the rooftop of the
bookstore chain’s eight-story building near Tokyo Station. Yaesu Book
Center is an affiliate of Kajima.“We’d like to use this bee project, which is under way in front of
Tokyo Station, to spur discussion regarding city development that can
sustain biodiversity,” Yoriyuki Yamada, deputy general manager of
Kajima’s environment division, said Tuesday.The bees are supposed to fly to such places as Ueno Park and the
Imperial Palace, located within 4 km of the rooftop, to hunt for nectar
from plant life ranging from tulip trees to cherry blossoms, Yamada
said, adding the firm expects to harvest 2 kg to 5 kg of honey per week.The Yaesu Book Center near Tokyo Station plans to give away the honey
to the first 100 customers who buy ¥3,000 or more worth of books on
April 23, which is World Book Day. The store also plans to offer the
harvest at a cafe inside the store.Kajima started keeping bees in 2009 at its company dormitory in Tokyo, and this is the fourth such project.

I still haven’t processed today, but some stray observations—Every thought and every prayer goes out to the victims and their families and loved ones. What a senseless act of waste and violence.

This wasn't about Boston. This was about a
global gathering of the finest runners in the world on a gorgeous spring
day celebrating nothing but athleticism and a love of life itself.It’s hard to imagine
any people more inspiring than all those people who dashed across
Boylston Street within seconds of the first explosion, and rushed to the
aid of the injured. Didn't give their own safety a thought. Made me
proud to be a member of the human race, which I think was the exact
opposite of the effect the bomber was hoping for.

Great job by
my buddy, Dave Robichaud, questioning the official assumption that the
fire at JFK Library was part of the attack. He cut down on a lot of
public hysteria in one fell swoop with solid, effective journalism.

When I watch the footage of the first explosion, I look at the Boston
Public Library Main Branch across the street, and I think no matter who
they turn out to be--Islamic jihadists, home grown militia, neo-Nazis,
something else--what really scares them, what they truly hate, is the
access to knowledge that building exemplifies.

Lisa Hughes of
WBZ 4 has been a rock throughout the coverage all day and into the
night--empathetic but level-headed, humane and so sharp.

Youngest victim is 8. Sigh. What can you do with that? If your "CAUSE"
involves the death of kids, it's not a cause, it's a pestilence.

Friday, April 12, 2013

A few years ago I did a post about Tax Day Mysteries. There weren't a lot of mysteries on that list. I found several that dealt with Finance, and high finance at that, but not many about the average Joe filing his taxes on April 15. Surely it's
enough to commit murder. So here are a few mysteries that deal specifically with Tax Day.. and at the end of this post, a list of several accounting/accountant mysteries. If you're not rushing to complete your taxes by April 15, you'll want to read a few of these over the weekend.

San Francisco tax accountant James “Whit” Whitney is summoned home from a
vacation in Santa Cruz to help his partner, George MacLeod, recover a
hefty tax refund for a beautiful blonde client named Marian Wolff. When
he returns to his office, Whit finds MacLeod dead in the firm’s vault,
“with a small hole in the bridge of his nose.” In order to complete the
tax return and uncover the murderer, Whit becomes a reluctant detective
and nearly gets himself killed in the process. To prevent Whit’s murder,
if possible, the SFPD assigns him a bodyguard named Swede Larson. Whit
and Swede tangle with ex-bootleggers and Telegraph Hill gangsters in
their efforts to unravel the mystery, which climaxes with a shootout in
the Mission District and a dramatic car chase across the Bay Bridge.
Along the way, Whit resists the advances of Marian Wolff and begins a
romance with Kitty MacLeod, George’s widow.

Before becoming a novelist, David Dodge worked as a Certified Public Accountant. No
wonder his first fictional hero was also a tax man. A notable aspect of
the Whitney novels is the volume of information about taxes and
finances that Dodge effortlessly weaves into his plots. To read more
about David Dodge, go HERE.

Sue Dunlap's 7th Jill Smith mystery is also entitled Death and Taxes.

Until someone put a
poisoned needle in his bicycle seat, Phil Drem was the meanest, most
nit-picking IRS agent in Berkeley, California.

But when
Detective Jill Smith began searching Berkeley's backwaters for the tax
man's killer, she found a different picture of Drem: a caring Drem,
whose once-beautiful wife was "allergic to the world" and whose friends
and enemies, old hippies and would-be entrepreneurs, enjoyed a
ghoulish pastime called The Death Game. Did the Death Game KO Drem? Was
someone's schedule a motive for murder? And what about a CPA who drove
a red Lotus ruthlessly and guaranteed his clients they'd never be
audited?

Only one thing is for sure, somewhere in Berkeley's
backwaters, a killer is still on the loose. And for a
detective who loves her city, doubts her lover, and has a knack for
solving the toughest of crimes, finding the truth is about as
inevitable as...Death And Taxes.

A continued search revealed one other title: A Little Rebellion: April 15 Surprise
by Rodney Sexton published by Writers Club Press (2000) an iUniverse
book. Not having read it, I thought I'd post the
Editorial Review:

After a client’s suicide and an unprecedented IRS attack on his tax
practice, Certified Public Accountant Karl Mendel plans what he hopes
will be the final solution to an income tax system out of control.

Assisted by close friends and professional associates, Mendel uses a
personal tragedy and his belief in American freedom to fuel his war on
what he refers to as the American KGB. With flying skills honed as a
Marine pilot in the Vietnam War Mendel takes to the air in his planned
assault on the U.S. income tax system. Help from Beatrice Gimble, a
former IRS programmer and current CPA partner of his best friend, Terry
Garcia, leads Karl inside the main computer facility run by the IRS.
Unaware that he is being watched by powers beyond the IRS, his “forced”
dealings with a Russian “mole” leads Karl and his partners into dangers
they had not considered and threatens the woman he loves more than life
itself.

About the Author: Rod Sexton is a practicing Certified Public Accountant living
near Houston, Texas with his wife. While in Vietnam, Sexton was
attached to the First Marine Air Wing. After active duty, he earned his
Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Taxation degrees. A
Little Rebellion is his first work of fiction.

Sure sounds like this fits the bill! Anyone read it? Any comments?

A further search for other mysteries uncovered a few other titles maybe a
bit further afield but with an accounting theme, so in honor of the coming Tax Day, I thought I'd post a few Accounting-Accountant crime fiction titles.

ACCOUNTING FOR MURDER: A List

Paul Anthony: Old Accountants Never Die
Paul Bennett: Due Diligence, Collateral Damage, False Profits, The Money Race
Ann Bridge: The Numbered Account
David Dodge --in addition to Death and Taxes, he wrote three more novels
about San Francisco tax accountant James "Whit" Whitney: Shear the
Black Sheep, Bullets for the Bridegroom and It Ain't Hay.
Marjorie Eccles: Account Rendered and other Stories
Gail Farrelly: Beaned in Boston
Dick Francis: Risk
Kate Gallison: Unbalanced Accounts
John Grisham: Skipping Christmas
Ian Hamilton: The Water Rat of Wanchai
Carolyn Hart: A Settling of Accounts
Marshall Jevons: Murder at the Margin, The Fatal Equilibrium, A Deadly Indifference
Emma Lathen: Accounting for Murder
Linda Lovely: Final AccountingPeter Robinson: Final Account
Karen Hanson Stuyck: Held Accountable
William C. Whitbeck: To Account for Murder

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Join Mystery Readers NorCal for an evening with mystery author Kenneth Wishnia in Berkeley, CA on Thursday, April 18, at 7 p.m. To receive address info and to RSVP, please include your email address in a comment below.

Kenneth Wishnia’s novels include 23 Shades of Black, an Edgar and Anthony Award finalist; Soft Money, a Library Journal Best Mystery of the Year; and Red House, a Washington Post Book World “Rave” Book of the Year. His short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock, Queens Noir, Politics Noir, and elsewhere. His latest novel, The Fifth Servant,
has been nominated for the “Premio Letterario Adei-Wizo” by the Italian
chapter of the Woman’s International Zionist Organization.

From Ken's Website:

Kenneth Wishnia was born in
Hanover, NH to a roving band of traveling academics. He earned a B.A.
from Brown University (1982) and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from
SUNY Stony Brook (1996). He teaches writing, literature and other
deviant forms of thought at Suffolk Community College in Brentwood, Long
Island, where he is a professor of English.

Ken’s novels have been
nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, and Macavity Awards, and have made
Best Mystery of the Year lists at Booklist, Library Journal, and The
Washington Post. His short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen’s
Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Murder in Vegas,
Long Island Noir, Queens Noir, Politics Noir, Send My Love and a Molotov
Cocktail, and elsewhere.

His most recent novel, The
Fifth Servant, was an Indie Notable selection, one of the “Best Jewish
Books of 2010” according to the Association of Jewish Libraries, a
finalist for the Sue Feder Memorial Historical Mystery Award, and winner
of a Premio Letterario ADEI-WIZO, a literary prize awarded by the
Associazione Donne Ebree d’Italia, the Italian branch of the Women’s
International Zionist Organization.

He is married to a wonderful Catholic woman from Ecuador, and they have two children who are completely insane.

Based on Louise Penny’s best-selling mystery novel Bury Your Dead,
this two-hour tour follows the trail of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache
as he investigates the murder of a local amateur archeologist, whose
body was found in the cellar of the Québec Literary and Historical
Society. Explore Old Québec City’s narrow streets with our guide and see
with your own eyes the places where life and work bring Armand Gamache.

The Bury Your Dead Tour starts at the Quebec Tourist Information Centre (12, Sainte-Anne Street). It stops at the Notre-Dame Basilica, the Literary and Historical Society (Morrin Centre) and the Petit Coin Latin restaurant where participants enjoy a cup of coffee or tea and a slice of sugar pie. It then goes to the Jeanne d'Arc Garden through the Plains of Abraham, ending at the Montcalm monument, on Grande Allée Street.

Come harvest time, the organizers hope the recipients will return good seeds from the plants they grow to keep the library's collection expanding. The mission is for participants to collectively discover the vegetable, legume and grain varieties that will flourish in San Francisco's 'quirky' climate.

Workman Publishing Company founder, Peter Workman, 74, died of cancer yesterday,
Sunday, April 7 at his home in New York. In addition to Workman's six
imprints are Workman, Artisan, Algonquin, Black Dog & Leventhan,
Highbridge, Storey, and Timber Press.

Workman was founder, president and CEO of one of the largest independent publishers of nonfiction trade books and calendars. Titles include favorites such as the boxed Page-A-Day Calendar,
"The Official Preppy Handbook" and "The Silver Palate Cookbook."

A Long Island native, Workman was a Yale University graduate. After a job in the sales department of Dell Publishing, he founded
Workman in 1967 as a book packager. Within two years, its inaugural list
led with Richard Hittleman's "Yoga 28-Day Exercise Plan," which is
still in print.

Workman bestsellers also include are B. Kliban's "Cat," Sandra
Boynton's children's books, and "1,000 Places To See Before You Die."
Artisan published chef Thomas Keller's "The French Laundry Cookbook."

He is survived by his widow, Carolan Raskin Workman, their two daughters and four grandchildren.

Just a reminder-- You won't want to miss the totally riveting PBS 3-part mystery series, THE BLETCHLEY CIRCLE. Mark your calendar! It will be shown Sundays, April 21-May 5, 2013, 10:00-11:00 p.m. on PBS. Check local listings.

Storyline: Almost 10 years after working undercover during World War II, Susan, Millie, Lucy and Jean work to catch a serial killer using their astute decryption skills. These 'ordinary' women secretly track patterns of a complex killer targeting young women in London. They do this on their own, with no help from Scotland Yard.

What's so interesting, of course, to mystery fans, is that these women, Susan, Millie, Lucy and Jean, have the extraordinary ability to break codes, a skill honed during World War II when they worked undercover at Bletchley Park, site of the UK’s main decryption establishment. Now, in 1952, the four have returned to civilian life, keeping their intelligence work secret from all (they signed the Secrets Act), including family and friends. A series of terrible murders targeting women, however, reunites the team as they set out to decode the pattern behind the crimes.

Two-time BAFTA award-winner Anna Maxwell Martin (“South Riding,” “Bleak House”) stars as Susan, now a housewife with two children, who has collected data on a series of murders and tried, unsuccessfully, to convince the police that another is imminent. Rachael Stirling (“Women in Love,” “Boy Meets Girl”) is Millie, the feistiest of the bunch, conversant in 14 languages, worldly and street smart. RADA graduate Sophie Rundle plays Lucy, a young woman equipped with a photographic memory. Julie Graham (“Lapland,” “Doc Martin”), oldest of the four, is the former head of the Bletchley Park unit.

Initially unaware of the Bletchley background, the police don’t take Susan’s theory about the crimes seriously. She quickly realizes she can crack the murders and bring the culprit to justice only with the help of her former colleagues. “He’s making a pattern, and he doesn’t realize he’s doing it,” Susan tells her friends. “If we can crack it, we’ll be able to see what his next move will be. Just like knowing where the German army will be in three days’ time. We can get ahead of him and stop him before he kills again.”

“THE BLETCHLEY CIRCLE combines a vivid portrait of post-war Britain with a taut and original code-breaking mystery that is equal parts thriller and whodunit,” said Beth Hoppe, Chief Programming Executive and General Manager, General Audience Programming, PBS. “We think American audiences are going to love the story and the characters. The production is exceptionally vivid, capturing London of the 1950s fully. In addition, the journey home for these women, from war intelligence to 1950s domesticity, is highly complicated, further emphasizing the importance of their bond and friendship.”

I loved this production. There are a few gaps, but you can fill them in. Watch or set your DVR. As with many PBS productions, you'll be able to watch the program on your computer/iPad for a week or two after airing.